Morrowind was a fine game but TES as a setting? Bleh. It's middle of the road.
I agree.
Within TES’ setting, Morrowind is the only really unique and interesting sub-setting, in my opinion. I guess Kirkbride literally locking himself in his apartment and taking LSD paid off. Otherwise, Arena, Daggerfall, and Oblivion are generic medieval fantasy, look and feel-wise, and Skyrim your typical viking tundra.
I’d argue that what makes me still have a lot of fond TES memories (even ones of moments from its worst entries, like Skyrim) is the charm inherent in the synergy between its admittedly buggy and janky but ultimately easy-to-get-lost-in sandbox and its mechanics, idiosyncracies (some dumb but endearing), specific quests that were memorable and classic, as well as the exploration of the world and discovering, be it via the many books or conversations, more about its lore, generic or not.
A game like Planescape- Torment is the quintessentially
not generic example of a
wholly memorable, intelligent, and life-changing RPG, but it requires your attention and doesn’t offer you a giant world to simply mindlessly wander, doing quests (some great, some dumb) and otherwise just messing around while making your own adventure as you can in TES. Torment
shouldn’t offer this, but there’s some merit to the fact TES games do, generic setting or not.
So, while I don’t play TES games much anymore, I think generic (Oblivion) and original (Torment) both have their places. I prefer the former, but the fact I still don’t FULLY hate TES, despite playing infinitely superior RPGs since, proves to me that when a game’s setting is generic it can still get by on the strength of what it does
within that generic setting and if the actual act of
playing it is fun, or at least successful as an addictive distraction from life.